Modelling and Simulating the Thermal Comfort Aspects of Natural Ventilated Classrooms in Hot-Humid Climates

Providing a thermally comfortable environment is considered to be an essential requirement for effective learning in classrooms. Providing thermal comfort by using active but energy intensive environment control systems is not sustainable in a vast country like India. Though national building codes provide some specifications for classrooms, it is not known whether adherence to these standards ensures thermal comfort in a sustainable manner. This paper presents results obtained from a systematic study on a naturally ventilated classroom located in a hot and humid environment. A reference classroom is defined based on the National Building Code (NBC) of India and building simulations are carried out on this classroom using EnergyPlus. The comfort aspects of the classroom are evaluated by applying well-known adaptive thermal comfort standards. Various measures such as occupant density, class scheduling, external shading, night ventilation, and reflective roof paintings are introduced in the simulation systematically to evaluate their effect on comfort aspects of the classroom, individually and cumulatively. The relative importance of each of these measures and then the combined effect on thermal comfort are analyzed. Results show that the comfort hours of the reference classroom can be increased significantly by employing the suggested methods which are practically feasible and sustainable.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1063-2_11 openalex:W3005075793 mag:3005075793